StrangeRanger

Downs and Ups

It's been a week of downs and ups here at Chez-Ranger.  We took Ivy in for a check-up again on Tuesday.  Started the whole thing off by discovering that Ivy had lost more weight.  She went from 8 lbs 3 oz (up from 8 lbs) down to 7 lbs 12 oz.  We were very upset by that, as we thought she'd been eating enough to at least maintain her weight.  Dr G (our hero!) also took some blood for analysis and, most traumatically for Ivy, clipped the ol' girls claws.  Ivy now no longer clicks when she walks.  We bought a few more cans of the especially tasty (smelly) gooshy food, brought Ivy home and waited for the lab results.  In the interim, we fed Ivy turkey (the cats are the only creatures in the house to get turkey on Thanksgiving) and set out heaping plates of the gooshy for her each night.  She's eating all of it, thank goodness, and seems to be her usual self.  She's felt up to helping us with the laundry:

  She seems to *love* napping on unfolded sheets.  Regardez!

  We got Ivy's labs back on Friday.  Her kidneys are slightly worse off and her thyroid is a bit low.  The instructions?  Cut back on the thyroid meds to get her thyroid back up as that will help the kidney function.  Keep on with whatever food the wee tuxie will eat.  We're good with both.  The major issue, though, comes up when it's meds time for Ivy.  I had been mashing her meds in a soft treat and feeding those to her.  She's completely stopped eating them.  Doesn't matter what flavor treat we use, either.  It's gotten to the point that I have to actually pill her.  Distressing for both of us.  This morning, once she noticed that I had the pills in my hand, Ivy walked (not ran) behind the couch.  I was waiting once she came out and it was an unhappy time for both of us.  She's not hard to pill but she *really* hates it.  Anyone out there have any non-traumatic methods for getting a pill into a cat?  She's gotta have 'em, and she will get 'em, but I'd rather not upset her like that.  I'd hate to upset her into defib while I'm giving her the blood-pressure meds.

Anyways, Maddie has been a bit jealous with all the attention paid to Ivy, but she's coping well.  Most of the time she's not even that, well, catty to Ivy.  They are still sharing the bed nicely:

 But still...I do think Maddie is jealous. She's been quite a lap-cat this week.  She's also trying to let us know that she can be as cute as Ivy:

  This wasn't a stretch, folks!  Napped like that for 10 minutes.  Trying to show us that her wee feet are as cute as Ivy's!  Never fear, Maddie....you are always safe in our affection.

Let us know if you cat-people have any good methods for pilling.  Thanks!

  

Still on the road...

...Granted that these two aren't necessarily Hope and Crosby, but they've done well enough together on the road to the bed.  These two shots were taken mere seconds apart as they lounged on the bed.

 Hmmm...bed, bath, and...beyond?  nah, never work.  Bed, bath and nap.  That's it.

  Hmmmm...is there any place on this bed more comfortable than right here? 

  Nope!

And there you have it.  The basic excitement of the past week.  Ivy continues to display more of her normal behaviors.  It's not an unbroken line of progress though.  She still has days where she doesn't eat as much as normal.  She seems to be drinking normally and she's usually bright-eyed and always bushy-tailed.  We're taking her in Tuesday for another weighing and more blood work and we'll let you know the details. 

To sign off, we'll give you the pic immediately before Maddie got all Sinatra (or all Sean Penn for you younger readers) on your humble papparazzi:

  Hey!  Get that *&#$%%@! camera outta my face!!

Must go apply bactine and band-aids.  Have a good week!

What's next? The Zamboni??

Saw this on the Y'Tube.  My brain melted.

This kitty'll be taking Snoopy's place on the Zamboni this hockey season.

I doubt Ivy would care much about the machine and Maddie wouldn't let it within 16 feet. 

AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!

I don't normally take quizzes like this, but based on the evidence presented, it seems that:

We ran the quiz using Maddie's data.  We figured that Ivy knows who's paying the medical bills and thus would spare us.

Say it isn't so, Maddie!

  Don't be silly!  Could this face *ever* hurt anyone?

And a tip o' the hat to Dark Roasted Blend for another great cat-link!

On the Road to Recovery

Well, it's been a mostly encouraging week at Chez-Ranger.  Ivy seems to be on the road to recovery.  She a what seemed to be a mini-relapse on tuesday, not eating or drinking and looking down.  We gave her another of the appetite stimulant pills and a plate of tuna and she perked up over the course of wednesday.  Ivy seems to be eating and sleeping as usual now.  Here's the sleeping part:

 She's sleeping heavily enough to completely ignore the camera's flash:

Ivy doesn't even seem to mind sharing the bed:

  Oddly enough, Maddie hasn't had much of an issue sharing the bed with Ivy.  We're intrigued and maybe a bit alarmed...  Ivy has resumed her wanderings around the house, inspecting things she's inspected a thousand times before.  She's also renewed her love-affair with our wood-bag.  Y'know?  the bag we use to bring in logs for the fire?  Ivy has always loved to climb right in and sniff the woodsy-goodness:

  Sometimes, if there's room, she settles in and has a nap, basking in the warmth from the fireplace. 

We're very glad she seems to be doing better, but we're an odd mix of cautiously optimistic and anxious.  We don't know what put her off her feed in the first place and we don't want another round of it.  She's an old girl, but we're eager for a few more years with her.  Wish her, and us, luck. 

In Sickness...

Well, Ivy's been sick.  It hasn't been anything really violent, but it's been worrying.  She'd been slowly going off her feed for a couple of weeks and had recently stopped eating her treats.  Including the ones I mash her thyroid and blood pressure meds in.  Not good.  Ivy had also changed some habits; going off into the bedroom alone to nap (on *Maddie's* blanket stack!)

 

We thought she was doing it because she doesn't get a chance to enjoy much sunlight.  She certainly was soaking it up!

 

Ivy seemed to like sacking out on the thermal blanket, too. (notice the completely flopped tail)

We finally took her to her vet (the famous Dr. G.).  Turns out that Ivy was down to 8 pounds!  There was no obvious cause and we were all afraid that Ivy had stopped eating because she felt it was time to go.  Dr. G. gave Ivy some sub-cutaneous fluids since she was rather dehydrated, and gave us some anti-biotics (just in case it was a bug putting Ivy off) and an appetite stimulant and a can of "an especially yummy" gooshy-food.   It seems that one of these treatments worked, because after a day of eating gooshy-food (artificially stimulated or not) and having anti-biotics, Ivy seems like she's back to normal!  (Hoo-Ray!!)  She's tucking into her kidney-food again and is eating her medicine-packed treats.  She is bright and alert and curious again.  She still takes over the blanket stack, but also sleeps in her accustomed spot on the sitting room couch.  Chez-Ranger breathes a collective sigh of relief!

And what was Maddie up to during all the drama? 

  Fine....make me sleep in the laundry...see if I care.  Oh, by the way, I wouldn't want to try wearing any of this stuff later on, if I were you.

Actually, Maddie was quite good to Ivy (which actually made us *more* worried for the ol' girl).  As Ivy bogarted the bed and blanket stack, Maddie was (grumpily) content to nap on the chair:

  or in the sock drawer:

  We're just overwhelmingly glad that Ivy seems to be recovering.  Further bulletins as events warrant!